Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

'My Lucky Tummy' dinner in Syracuse showcases home cooking from around the world

My Lucky TummyMy Lucky Tummy, a dinner with traditional foods prepared by refugees from six countries will be held at ArtRage on May. 3rd. Event organizer Adam Sudmann introduces Muna Al Aly from Iraq with her biryani dish, Kyaw Kyaw and his wife Ma Thu from Burma with their achiyre, and Jose Alamo with a dessert flan. Julie Norman, re-settlement case manager at the Northside CYO interprets. David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com

Whenever a party involving members of the international refugee community on Syracuse’s North Side is coming up, Jose Alamo seeks out resettlement case coordinator Julie Norman.

“He says, ‘There’s a party? You know what that means!’ “ said Norman, who converses with Alamo in Spanish.

It means Alamo will bring a dessert called flan, a caramel custard creation he learned back in his hometown of Cienfuego, Cuba.

Now, a really big refugee dinner party is on the horizon. The event is My Lucky Tummy, which organizers are calling a “pop-up food court.” It’ll be 7 to 10 p.m. May 3 at the ArtRage Gallery, 505 Hawley Ave.

It features home-cooking from seven different families and dishes from Burma, Bhutan, Eritrea, Iraq, Poland and Cuba.

That’s quite a melting pot of languages, cultures and cooking styles.

“The idea is to show the brilliant collection of foods that our city’s refugee community has to offer, and expand our culinary horizons,” said Adam Sudmann, one of the event organizers. Proceeds will benefit the refugee families preparing the food.

It's an opportunity to showcase the changing culinary culture of the North Side, once best known for its Italian and German heritage.

Lucky Tummy party-goers will be introduced to such items as Momo, the famed steamed dumplings of the central Asian country of Bhutan; Injera, a pancake and Brsin, a spiced beef stew, from Eritrea in East Africa; and Easter Potato Salad (or Salatka) from Poland.

They'll be able to meet and talk food with the cooks, and get hints on where to shop for some of the more exotic ingredients -- such as some of the many international markets dotting the North Side, or increasingly at mainstream supermarkets.

Ma Thu and her children, Sophia and Solomon, eat bowls of Ohn No Khao Swe, a coconut chicken stew from Burma. Ma Thu and her husband, Kyaw Kyaw, will prepare Burmese food at the My Lucky Tummy dinner at ArtRage gallery on Friday, May 3. Dave Lassman / The Post-Standard

Several dishes at the event come from the southeast Asian nation of Burma (or Myanmar), including Ohn No Khao Swe, a coconut chicken stew.

Burma is also the home of the snack called achiyre and an choi, which is either fried shallots or fried sweet bottle gourd (or squash) served with a tamarind-peanut-cilantro dipping sauce.

That item will be prepared by the husband-and-wife team of Kyaw Kyaw and Ma Thu.

“In Burma, this is a snack (that) people eat all the time,” said Kyaw Kyaw (pronounced chaw-chaw). He arrived from Rangoon, Burma, five years ago.

The base is either shallots, which are prevalent throughout Burmese cuisine, or the bottle gourd (which is also known as calabash). These are cut into bite-sized pieces, then dipped in a batter and fried until golden brown.

They can be served with any number of dipping sauces. Kyaw Kyaw and Ma Thu will prepare a mildly spice sauce.

The crispy fried gourd makes a light snack that can be eaten on the go.

Muna Al Aly from Iraq made biryani, a plate of vegetable rice topped with seasoned mix of raisins, almonds and cut-up vermicelli. It will be served Friday at the My Lucky Tummy dinner.David Lassman / The Post-Standard

A little heartier is the entrée that will be prepared by Muna Al Any, a photographer/videographer who came from Iraq five years ago.

Her offering for the party is a biryani, which at its heart is a dish of basmati rice and mutli-colored cut-up vegetables.

To that, she adds a layer of cooked mixture of broken up pieces of vermicelli pasta, raisins and almonds and a mix of spices, notably cinnamon. She tops it off with chicken legs seasoned simply with salt and pepper.

For the Lucky Tummy event, she will also make a stuffed baby eggplant dish and dolma (grape leaves).

When Al Any first came to Syracuse, she said, she had go to some of the specialty Middle East markets, like Samir’s on East Genesee Street or the Jerusalem Market on Teal l Avenue to find some of her ingredients.

“Now I can find them in almost every store,” she said. “That is how (Syracuse) has changed.”

Kyaw Kyaw has the luxury of a Burmese owned market across the street from his North Side apartment, and several other Asian markets in the neighborhood.

Jose Alamo, from Cuba, is making a custard dessert called flan for the My Lucky Tummy dinner Friday.David Lassman / The Post-Standard

Capping off the Lucky Tummy party will be Jose Alamo and his Cuban flan. Alamo, who was a driver in Cuba, said his mother taught him to make it.

It’s a simple enough dish – made with both sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk , eggs, vanilla and sugar.

Alamo’s time-honored technique is to cook his flan in a metal can, such as a #10 can that might have once contained fruit, vegetables or perhaps coffee. He cuts off the top and turns down the sharp edges.

He places the sugar in the bottom of the can and heats it until it caramelizes, turning and tilting the can occasionally to ensure the bottom and lower sides are coated.

He mixes the other ingredients, pours them on top of the caramelized sugar, and covers the can with parchment or baking paper, tied securely with a string. He cooks this inside a baking dish (or pressure cooker), filled with water about three-quarters of the way up the side.

There’s also a technique to getting his flan out of he can: Once it has cooled, Alamo removes the paper, places a plate over the top, and quickly flips it over. He presses the bottom (now the top) of the can firmly to push the flan out.

“It isn’t a party until Jose shows up with his flan,” said Norman, the caseworker helping with the Lucky Tummy event. “That’s the perfect way to end our dinner.”

Many of the participants in the My Lucky Tummy dinner use ingredients, tools and techniques that are not easy to translate into recipes for most American cooks. Here are versions of two of the dishes that will be served:

Carmel: Some people like to make carmel by adding water to sugar and then cooking it to a nice dark golden brown, and some just like to melt the sugar to golden without water. Either method will work here. If you are using a flanera, which is a metal pan with a lock-down lid, you can make the carmel right in the flanera. If you are using a casserole dish, make the carmel in a saucepan and pour into the bottom of the casserole dish.

Custard: As you prepare the custard, the carmel will cool. In a separate bowl, beat the 1 whole egg and 5 egg yolks together. A whisk works very well here. Add the evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk to the eggs and mix together. Add the vanilla extract, either 1/2 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon depending on what strength you prefer. Pour the custard mixture into the flanera or casserole dish over the hardened carmel. Put on the lid.

Put your flan into the ovenproof dish or baking pan and fill with hot water to about half-way up the sides, or as high as you can go and still move the thing without spilling hot water on yourself.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and let set for another 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and the water-bath and let cool.

Plating: Run a butter-knife around the outside edge of the flan. Place a plate large
enough to handle the liquid carmel over the flan and invert. Chill the flan for at least an hour before serving.

Place the chopped onion, ginger, garlic, and 4 tablespoons of water into a blender. Puree until smooth.

Spread the cut-up chicken out on a plate. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and let sit.

Place the flour in a bowl. Slowly add 1 cup of the chicken broth to mix well.

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, toss in the chicken and stir-fry until lightly browned. Some of the fat will render from the chicken skin. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon.

Add the sliced onions to the pan and cook slowly, allowing the onions to caramelize over the course of five to seven minutes. Towards the end of that time when the onions are beginning to brown, add the turmeric and paprika.

In a pot suited for soups, add the chicken along with the juices that will have settled, the sautéed onions, the onion and ginger puree, and the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth. Carefully add the chickpea flour and broth mixture, mixing quickly so that the flour won't clump.

Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Season to taste with more salt, if needed.

Add the coconut milk. Stir to mix and return to a simmer. Serve with noodles and garnishes as desired.